


let's make it work this time

by veronicabunch



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Getting Back Together, Past Relationship(s), Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 12:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12190047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veronicabunch/pseuds/veronicabunch
Summary: Sam has a husband. They're not legally married. And damn, Hyde can't think about it. Can't even begin to care about it. Because this means one thing.Jackie.





	let's make it work this time

 

**x x x**

 

“Huh,” Hyde says, looking at the basketball that’s stuck between the backboard and the net. Donna lets out a small laugh of disbelief. If he got the shot, he’d stay with Sam and try to work out their false marriage. If he missed, he’d say goodbye. That’s what he’d just told Donna.

“You know, Hyde, if it was going to happen to anyone, it’d happen to you.” Donna gives him a supportive smile, and puts her hand on his shoulder. Hyde still has no idea how Forman could ever give up a woman like her. Although, Forman being in Africa had given them the opportunity to really become friends. It’s not like Hyde hadn’t cared about Donna before Forman left, but now he feels closer to her somehow.

He’s protective of Donna, even if she could kick his ass any time she wants.

“Fuck, Donna. I…”

“Do you love her?” Donna asks, as she walks over to the net. She jumps and with one strong hit, she knocks the basketball free. He bends down to pick it up when it comes in his direction.

Does he love Sam? The stripper he doesn’t remember marrying in Vegas? Well, hell, he did like having someone around to talk to about his day. And he had to admit, the sex was pretty great. She wasn’t a pain in his ass like Jackie had been.

Fuck. Jackie.

No matter how hard Hyde had tried, he hadn’t been able to shake his feelings for Jackie. He’d told her that they couldn’t be friends. That she’d hurt him too badly. They’d be pleasant acquaintances.

But then Sam had entered the picture, and Jackie had held her own. She had long since stopped giving him longing looks that gave him a small sense of pleasure drowning in guilt. Jackie and Sam might not like each other, but Jackie hadn’t let Sam’s presence change a thing.

Sam’s great. On paper, the idea of marrying a stripper, and when she brings him soup whenever he gets a cold. She’s great; she is.

“She’s not Jackie,” Hyde says. He almost forgot Donna is standing beside him until she takes the basketball ball from his hands.

“Then maybe you should do something about that, Hyde.”

He looks at Donna, wondering once again how Forman could ever walk away from her. Hyde nods. “Yeah. Maybe I should.”

_“Now,_ Hyde.”

“Right!”

 

\- - -

 

“Oh! Steven!” Jackie says when she comes into the basement to find him alone. She glances back towards his bedroom, and Hyde doesn’t know how to tell her that Sam’s gone. For good. Because she never should’ve been here to begin with. “I was looking for Donna…is she around?”

“No idea,” he says, with a shrug. She hesitates, and he’s not sure why.

“I…I heard about Sam’s first husband. I’m sorry, Steven.”

“No, you’re not.” He says it to see the flair of fire in her eyes. She gives him a sharp, unimpressed look. There might even be a hint of a pout on her lips.

“You’re right. I’m not. She was such a bitch.” Jackie rubs her hands together, as if she’s anxious. The Jackie he knows doesn’t get anxious about being around him. She’s tough, assertive, and bossy. “Well, if Donna’s not here, I guess I should go see if I can spot her from the water tower.”

Hyde’s lips twitch. Just as her hand touches the door, he says, “I kicked Sam out.”

“You did?” Jackie asks, and he can hear the vulnerability in her voice. The same vulnerability she’d had when she’d begged him to tell her that they would have a future together. The same vulnerability that she’d had when she had walked away from him because he couldn’t give her what she needed.

“Jackie, I’m an idiot. I never let you tell me what really happened with Kelso.”

Jackie sits down on the couch, leaning close to him. She folds her hands on her lap and says, “Steven, listen. I can’t do  _this_  unless it’s going to go somewhere serious. Despite the misunderstanding with Michael, our issues can’t be solved without talking about it. I mean,  _really_  talking about it. And talking about our  _feelings._  I know it’s hard for you, Steven, but I really need you to try.”

Hyde studies her, because he could shrug again. She’d get up, walk right out that door, and who knows what would happen? Maybe this was their last chance to get this right; maybe it was a huge mistake to even consider it. Hyde thinks about how shitty the last few months have been, constantly tip toeing around each other, having to pry Jackie off Sam because she started a fight, and having to see Jackie hold it all together. God, she’s incredible.

He’s seen her hold her heart in her hands, trying to offer it to him, and despite the fact that he let it shatter, she stood strong. She held her chin up, and she didn’t take any shit. Jackie’s the most incredible person Hyde’s ever known. He’d thought she was going to leave him like everyone else has, but instead, she stuck around and had become a good friend.

“Steven,” Jackie whispers. “I can’t do this if you’re not going to try.”

She starts to stand up, and Hyde makes a split decision. He reaches out, grabs her hand, stops her. Jackie looks back at him, slowly sitting down on the couch again.

“Jackie, don’t go.”

Her eyes are brimming with tears, but she holds on. “Steven…”

“Tell me what happened with Kelso.”

She takes a deep breath, holding his hand tight. “Steven, when I didn’t think you were going to say yes, I was broken. Michael drove me up and stayed with me as a friend. He came back into the room, cracking jokes about sleeping together, but you have to trust me: I’d already told him no. He knew it wasn’t going to happen, Steven. He made a joke when he got out of the shower that I’d be ready and naked by the time he got back with ice. I told him to take a hike.”

Hyde listens. He replays the scene in his head, but from Jackie’s perspective. How she’d been on the bed, flipping through a magazine. How she’d been so relieved to see him at first, and then panicked. Hyde remembers how Kelso had been cracking a joke when he entered the room. How he had tried to tell him it had been a joke.

He might regret this. Might. But he  _knows_  he’ll regret it if he doesn’t give it a shot. “Jackie, that night…I knew what I wanted. I wanted you.”

The tears in her eyes pool over. “I  _want_  you, Steven. I am so grateful that Michael broke my heart and left for California the summer we got together. You became my rock. I love you, Steven. I love you, and only you.”

Hyde shakes his head, feeling his eyes start to water.  _Dammit._  “Jackie, what I did…with Sam, and everything… I’m so sorry.”

Jackie blinks. “Steven, I never cared about Sam. I mean, I hated her and she’s a whore for stealing you away. But I always hoped you’d wake up one day and realize that you wanted me too.”

He smiles. “I’ve never not wanted you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s the only way you ever shut up.” Hyde grins though, leaning towards her. He gathers her hands in his. “Jackie, this whole thing has been screwed up from the beginning. I don’t know when it got serious. It started from boredom and grew into something  _real._ I didn’t expect that. I’ve never had or deserved anything real in my life. I never thought I would.”

“Steven, you deserve good, nice things. You do.”

Hyde gives her the smallest of smiles. “I didn’t know that then. But then I had you, and I started to feel like maybe I could have something nice in my life. I didn’t expect it to be a short, annoying pain in my ass, but I’m glad it was you.”

Jackie lifts a hand to brush away some tears. “I’m glad it was me too.”

“Listen, Jackie, I don’t know if I can promise you forever right now. I don’t. I know you want an engagement and a marriage, and I…” Hyde stops. No. He’d gone to Chicago. He’d made up his mind. He had decided he couldn’t live without her in his life. Now here she was, giving him, giving them, one more shot. He frowns. “Actually, Jackie, I…”

“I need a future,” Jackie whispers, her voice cracking. “If that hasn’t changed for you…then I think I should go.”

“What if I’m not good enough for you?”

Jackie tightens her grip on his hands. “How could you  _ever_  think that?”

“I might not amount to anything,” Hyde tells her, feeling too vulnerable. But he can’t lose her. Not again. “I might just be a guy who owns a record store.”

“Okay,” Jackie says, nodding.

“I might not be able to give you things you need.”

“Things I need?”

“Yeah, like fancy cars, or expensive jewelry or…you know, the shit you like.”

A slow, but wide smile crosses Jackie’s face. She inches forward so that she can easily cup his face with her small, soft hands. “Steven, haven’t you figured it out by now? I don’t  _need_  anything else. I just need you.”

There’s a lump in his throat. “But Jackie…”

“No, look, Steven. My father’s in prison, my mother’s in Mexico…maybe? I’ve been struggling for the past few years, but  _you_  stuck by me. You didn’t leave.” Jackie smiles. “And after thinking I lost you to the stripper…I learned that shopping and shiny things don’t make me as happy and fulfilled as you do. I don’t care if we live in this basement for the rest of our lives and raise children with Kitty and Red. I don’t care if we live in a trailer or we have a nice house with a white picket fence. I need you.”

Hyde leans forward to kiss her, catching the back of her neck with his hand. God, her skin feels so damn soft. He gently moves her so she lays on her back, and he straddles her with deliberate consideration as to not knee her. Tasting Jackie isn’t quite the same as it had been last year.

He pulls back. “You change your lip chap?”

Jackie smiles at him. “Yeah. I went from strawberry to raspberry. Like it?”

“Love it,” Hyde whispers. He kisses her again, deeper, and then feels Jackie pull away. “What?”

“Steven, I love you. But please don’t make us live at the Formans’ if we have kids,” Jackie says, and there’s such a sweet sincerity to it that he has to give her a quick kiss.

“I think we can handle that,” Hyde tells her.

She pushes up back one more time. “And I know I said I don’t care if we live in a trailer, but…think we could find a small house or an apartment somewhere?”

Hyde beams at her. “Let’s move into the apartment above the record shop.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Jacqueline Burkhart.”

Seeing her face light up is worth it. Worth all the pain and suffering they’d endured together. Hyde doesn’t want to stop kissing her, touching her, loving her. But he is in the Formans’ basement so he’d have to watch himself.

Jackie reaches for Hyde, gripping his shirt to hold him in place above her. “Steven, you want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Well who else would I do that with?” he teases.

“Are you…proposing?”

“I thought I just did!”

“Steven!” Jackie playfully smacks him before making them sit up right. “I want to do this right. I want you to ask me.”

Hyde smiles. He kisses her forehead and gets up. When he comes back from his bedroom, he holds the ring box in his hand. Jackie gasps, clapping her hands over her mouth. He grunts when he gets down on one knee. He knows that’s what Jackie wants.

Her eyes widen at the sight of the box. “Oh, Steven, I  _knew_  you wanted to propose!”

He frowns and says, “We  _just_  talked about it!”

She laughs, clapping her hands together. “I meant when you came to Chicago. I…oh who cares? Carry on!”

“Jacqueline Burkhart, will you do me the honour of marrying me? Growing old together, having kids, grandkids, the whole nine yards.”

“Oh, Steven!” Jackie throws her arms around him. “Yes, yes, yes.”

They hug, he puts the ring on her finger, and meets her eyes. “Alright. Guaranteed quality sex for the rest of my life. And after seeing your mother, I can’t wait to see how hot you look at her age.”

Jackie laughs, playfully swatting him. She does that a lot. “Oh,  _please._  I’m going to learn from her mistakes and make sure I look even better.”

He laughs with her, and rests his forehead on hers. “I love you, Jackie.”

“I love you too, Steven.”

“Congrats, guys!” They both turn at the new voice. Hyde gives Donna a grin. Fez beams at them, and Michael doesn’t even look surprised. Hyde grudgingly enters a group hug with all of them, and when he steps back, he finds himself putting his arm around his fiancee’s shoulders.

Life’s not so bad.

 

\- - -

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted [here!](https://veronicabunch.tumblr.com/post/165740121217/lets-get-it-right-this-time-jackie)
> 
> okay but like.
> 
> i didn't mean to get feels. feels that led me to fanfic. for that '70s show. i just. i had to get this out, y'know? i didn't even care how bad it was. i just needed to write them ending up together because jackie should've never ended up with fez.


End file.
